


Fantasies

by radstickers



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, kind of a rescue fic? i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25541131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radstickers/pseuds/radstickers
Summary: In which Catra and Adora discuss fantasies they both had during the war. And Catra finds out one of hers was real.Canon compliant for s4 and s5.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 269





	Fantasies

**Author's Note:**

> based on a doodle sketch comic I posted earlier today. I made the comic first btw.

“What, _really?”_

Catra lounges in a chair next to their bed on _Darla,_ slitted eyes bright and _focused._

“What _kind_ of fantasy?”

Adora turns an _adorable_ shade of pink and stops talking. Catra crosses one leg over another and leans back, her grin now showing _teeth._

“Wow! Miss “I have to save the entire universe” has _fantasies?”_

“Catra--”

“Well you can’t just _say_ that and then not explain,” she simpers, feeling her grin get pulled yet wider when Adora stamps her foot down, feigning grouchiness.

“It’s _dumb.”_

“I think _I’ll_ be the judge of that, Adora.”

“Okay, _whatever--_ but I’m not just going to just tell you right now.” Adora looks down, and the indignant posturing drops to something more vulnerable. “...I never told anyone this so. You’re going to have to wait.”

Catra’s grin drops a bit, and she sits up in the chair. It’s always fun to bother Adora...up until she actually lets the cracks show. Catra’s will softens. 

“...I doubt it’s embarrassing.”

“It’s...well, it’s about you.”

 _That_ makes Catra’s eyebrows leap into her hairline.

“Me.”

Adora starts pacing, lifting her right hand to the back of her head to scratch nervously.

“I mean it’s not _sexual_ or anything. It’s not like that. It’s just...I-I…”

“...Adora. It’s alright.”

The pacing pauses, and mid scratch, Adora turns to look at her. She feels the surge of vulnerability, that calculating glance, something she had never really noticed before the war, but now--now she can see the way those eyes size her up, figuring out if it’s worth it to say something or not. A fear, perhaps--that were she to say the wrong thing--Catra might leave.

It tears at her heart. 

The expression Catra presumably makes at the thought is enough to slake whatever fear is on the opposite side of that calculation, because that hand drops and Adora closes her eyes.

“...okay. Fine. It’s like...you...caught me on Mara’s ship, right? Well...s-sometimes I just...I wish that when you came to talk to me that you listened...that you….that you realized what you were doing…”

Those eyes stay squeezed shut, as though afraid to glimpse Catra’s expression.

“...you...you kneel down and I start crying. I’m scared, but something in your eyes change. Like you finally understand. Your arm wraps around the back of my neck a-and for the first time in two years, you _hug_ me again.”

Catra’s fangs sink into her lip at the thought. The thought of redeeming perhaps the _biggest_ mistake of her life. In the course of a single day, she tore irrevocable wounds into everyone who had ever been close to her. 

“...I just wanted you to understand...i-it always scared me how you never understood, no matter what I said, no matter how much I begged you to understand. You just...hated me, and that was that.”

She stands slowly, wrapping her arms around Adora’s waist and pressing her cheek to that shoulder.

“...I don’t...think I hated you. Even if I believed I did.”

Catra chews on her own fantasy, on sharing it. But when Adora wraps her arms around her tightly, she loses herself in that embrace.

* * *

_Smoke sears her lungs. It’s hard to breathe. Her normally light body feels like a sack of bricks. Everything hurts. And she knows, in that moment, she’s dead to rites._

_No one is coming for her. Anyone from the Horde might see it in their best interest to let her stay there. Lonnie would find her and laugh. The Rebellion will just off her. Or maybe the woods themselves will take her for their own._

“Alright, so...you opened up yesterday and...okay, I have one too.”

Adora pauses mid bite, her head tilting in that quintessentially _Adora_ way when Catra says something confusing. A beat later and those eyes widen.

“Oh! The fantasy. Wait, you had one too?”

“Yeah, well it didn’t really seem the time. Especially since yours is kinda mine too. I definitely wish I had done that instead of...what I did.”

Adora’s eyes soften and those lips pull into a big smile.

“Aww..? You do?”

Somehow, even months post war, months into dating and cuddling and kissing, months of Catra consciously working on...well, _everything_ \--Adora is still somehow _entranced_ with the bare minimum. 

And while externally she may play it off like she’s annoyed--making Adora proud of her has to be one of the most _enticing_ and yet utterly attainable goals she’s ever had for herself.

“...yeah. I...yeah.”

There’s a beat, Catra enjoying the radiant sunbeam-like pride peeling off of Adora, and she basks in it like the cat she is. 

“...so you had a fantasy too?”

“....ah. Okay, well it’s not as selfless as yours is.”

“...wanting a hug is _kinda_ selfish.”

Catra eyes her a moment, lips curling into a smile.

“Mm...debatable.”

“Tell me!”

Catra snorts. Rolls her eyes. Sighs.

“Alright, _fine._ It was...after the Portal. Before Prime showed up. It was some fever dream I had from working too hard.”

It’s Catra’s turn to scratch into her mane, biting her lip. How does she even explain this?

“So I’m on a skiff for something, probably just moving back and forth between the Fright Zone and the base we had in the woods. Not really important. I’m tired and distracted and I skim a tree branch and go down. And I would have been dead but you show up and carry me to some base.”

She shortens it, skimming over the intimate feeling of She-Ra’s hand, warm and radiant, sliding against her neck, of feeling a pulse. Of gathering her into those arms. Of--

“Catra.”

She looks up, realizing Adora’s been trying to get her attention. 

“What?”

“Catra...that….really happened.”

* * *

_She doesn’t cry. Everything she’s worked for is over, and she doesn’t cry. Maybe it’s a relief. She’s going to die now. It’s over. It’s...finally over._

_She can hear the branches cracking, breaking. The sizzle of super heated fluid leaking from the skiff. Several of the ancient trees had snapped branches, and she wonders if that’s what will do her in, one over her head, falling--crushing her._

_Double Trouble was long gone, maybe they defected to the Rebellion after all. She was...alone. No one was coming to save her._

_Time passes, she doesn’t know how long. Her ears still work, despite coming in and out of consciousness._

“...Things were rough with Glimmer so I was spending a lot of time on my own. I liked...watching the moons. Charting them. I don’t know, it kind of calmed me down. Gave me something else to think about. So I was watching the western sky when I saw the puff of smoke.”

_She can hear footsteps._

_Her position with Hordak was tremulous enough that he likely wouldn’t be too upset if someone mutinied on her. Would certainly save him the trouble down the line. She was losing it, and everyone under her was laughing. They knew. They all knew. Her days, like always, were numbered--but now, she was living her last minutes._

“Bow was asleep and...he was already so stressed out. I didn’t want to bother him. I figured if I ran into trouble I could just leave.”

_She knows people by their footsteps, and if not recognizable, she knows what to expect from them. These were heavy, indicating something tall, but unencumbered. Perhaps one of the bull or deer people. They seemed to be bigger._

_Her eyes open slightly, just enough to see the lighting in the woods has changed. Is it daylight already?_

_“Catra…”_

“I found you...the skiff was destroyed and it was a miracle and a half you weren’t destroyed with it. You got thrown and managed to hit the soft grass and moss instead of hitting a crystal, or a tree branch...you were...insanely lucky. I guess that’s always been true.”

_Adora. It’s Adora. She only has a moment to process this when she’s rolled--gently--onto her back. A large hand, far bigger than Adora’s normal palm, slides her head to the side, radiant fingers pushing down her collar to look for a pulse._

“I...was so relieved that you were still breathing. That you had a pulse. I was so sure when I saw you that…”

Adora trails off. Catra’s heart catches in her chest.

_She stiffens, when those hands pull her closer. She doesn’t want to move, everything hurts so much--but she’s drawn, held to a radiant chest._

“I couldn’t take you to Brightmoon as a prisoner. Glimmer...she had been...doing things to Horde soldiers during raids, and...and Shadow Weaver was there, I couldn’t…”

_She can feel the way Adora doesn’t hold her too close. Despite being half dead, Catra still has claws, and has played dirty in the past. She can’t blame her for that._

_She can’t blame her for anything._

“The only thing I could think of was to get you to the nearest Horde base. To let them find you. To save you. I...I couldn’t let you die.”

_Catra fights to open her eyes. The sky is still dark, but the area around them is bright. She can’t see too well, but she can make out the glowing, radiant form of She-Ra, the way those eyes drop down to hers._

_And even in such a powerful form, Adora still...stops. Even blurry, Catra can see the fear in those eyes._

“You stopped, when I looked up at you.”

“Yeah. I didn’t know if I should get ready for a fight or not. Plus...my stomach...my _throat--_ all in striking range.”

Catra lifts a hand, shyly resting clawed fingers over Adora’s neck. And she bows, pressing a kiss to that pulse as her arms wrap around her. 

“...I...genuinely had no idea,” Catra confesses. “...After the portal...whatever kind of...rivalry we had--whatever truce it was that kept you from killing me and me from killing you--I thought it was over. That after that...you were going to win this war. You were…”

She trails off, pressing her forehead into Adora’s shoulder.

“...That’s why I was so confident. That’s why I...I was so _sure._ A sure bet. I send you Glimmer...and know...no one will come for me.”

_Me? All I do is hurt people. There’s no one left in the entire universe who cares about me._

“You miscalculated,” Adora answers softly, those strong arms wrapping around Catra.

Time passes, dinner forgotten in favor of something for more satisfying. Catra can hear her pulse, the slow, even rhythm of that breathing.

But she can’t shake the desire, when it plants itself in her mind. 

“...Adora?” she asks softly, directly into that ear.

“Mmm. Yeah?”

She sounds comfortable. Relaxed. A rare state for her.

“...Could you...hold me as She-Ra? I’d at least like experience it without being half dead.”

_Or all dead._

“Oh. I guess I haven’t...really…”

“I mean you don’t have to--”

“No, I...I want to.”

There’s a warm glow, then a flash. 

Somehow she thought it would be somehow less radiant, while not on death’s door. She was wrong. 

The warm, uncomplicated smile makes Catra relax, and she stretches out slowly until her neck is resting in the crook of that arm. Unconsciously, she begins to purr, her eyes going half lidded as she gazes into those eyes, that--while _glowing_ are still uniquely _Adora._

A lazy grin crosses her lips, as Adora’s other arm slides up beneath her knees. Her eyes slowly close, giving another big stretch before rolling towards Adora’s stomach. 

“I guess tomorrow night after everyone’s asleep I can tie you up to that pillar again and then hug you. Only fair.”

**Author's Note:**

> i actually cannot stress enough how much it hurts my feelings when i post art and get a slew of "where's the fic" "link the fic" comments like i can't invent my own comic aus without them having come from somewhere. if you're reading this, please stop doing that.


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